HOUSTON (Reuters) -BP Plc may begin restarting its 435,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana, refinery this week after restoring electrical and cooling water systems knocked out by a Wednesday fire, sources familiar with plant operations said on Monday.
The timing of the restart may change as repairs to the electrical system and restoration of the cooling water system progress, the sources said. The restart of production could come as early as midweek or fall into September.
The loss of the electrical system took down the refinery’s cooling water system, bringing down units not directly affected by the electrical system outage, the sources said.
“Our team is making significant progress and working toward a phased restart of the refinery,” BP spokesperson Christina Audisho said.
BP has called in almost all of the refinery’s employees to work on restoring production at the largest refinery in the upper U.S. Midwest as fall harvest season begins.
A few of the refinery’s units have been on cold circulation since, but will require being heated to operating temperatures that can reach 1,000 Fahrenheit (538 Celsius), the sources said.
Whiting is the sixth-biggest refinery by capacity in the United States and the company’s largest in the nation, according the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot)
